Serena Davies reviews The Waldo Moment, the last of the second run of Channel
4's darkly satirical drama series, Black Mirror.

Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror (Channel 4) satirical dramas are fast gaining a cult status. Not all succeed, and some are unwatchable, notably the opener of his first series, where the prime minister had sex with a pig. But this follow-up series has, generally, shown more nuance than the first.

Last night’s closing instalment introduced us to an interactive cartoon bear, Waldo, who, in the manner of Ali G, did interviews with real-life people. He tangled with an almost equally caricatured Tory party candidate (Tobias Menzies), whom Waldo proceeded to stand against in a by-election. As a mockery of the deeply compromised ideals of modern politics – people who simply hated politics could now vote for Waldo – the satire worked.

This was because Brooker didn’t over egg it, at least not until the end, which descended into a hammy dystopian vision of Waldo becoming a means of universal mind control. But before that final five minutes, Brooker didn’t let Waldo actually win the by-election, and he made the comedian controlling the bear utterly reviled by his own actions – “He’s not real! He doesn’t stand for anything!” He also gave the Tory one rather good line: “If that thing is the main opposition then the whole system looks absurd. Which it may well be – but it built these roads.” The message that we may complain about our politicians but they’re all we’ve got scored a bleak bulls-eye.